Elite: Dangerous looks better already!

[SteveMill]

This game plays in real time so it isn't possible to skip them.

As I mentioned earlier, it is not true. You can skip the entire launch cutscene plus whatever you do to leave the station by just logging out and back in. Takes about five seconds compared to a minute it takes to do it "properly". it is just bad design, although of course people will come up with some excuses for it. Hell, this entire game is built upon excuses why it hasn't been released like 15 years ago

That proves nothing. You're just tricking the code. If people don't have patience for little things like the launch sequence ED is probably not really the game for them.

I happen to like it despite its many faults - a few seconds of a cut scene every now and then actually enhances things for me. I'm not in a race, I'm playing a long term game. I greatly preferred the proper docking in the early X series to the cut scene of XR also.

EDITED TO ADD: Because of the MMO aspect it means that the mechanism (cut scene is the wrong term as they are in-game) has to run through the full animation else other players would see you 'teleporting' or more likely - vanishing into another instance bubble.

Of course they could make special cut scenes to replace the mechanic is solo online.

[Tycow]

pjknibbs, I feel for you, I really do, but considering your connection with Egosoft, I really do think you should know what to expect.

You should expect what he writes. Dont want to talk for PJK but this type of comment is offensive, assuming one's opinion is invalid just because he happens to help out sorting trolls in a forum is something that ticks me off badly. Implying he'd have a hidden agenda is stupid and again offensive, you should try address the issues raised not invalidating opinions by making absurd accusations. I advise the use of manners next time.

MFG

Ketraar

The irony is strong with this one luke

Yarp. Right there with you and Alien on this one. O_o

[pjknibbs]

Ketraar, please let me fight my own battles--I didn't take offence at Alien Tech's comment, because it's pretty much par for the course for people thinking I'm involved with Egosoft or with game development in any way whatsoever.

[Antilogic]

Ketraar, please let me fight my own battles--I didn't take offence at Alien Tech's comment, because it's pretty much par for the course for people thinking I'm involved with Egosoft or with game development in any way whatsoever.

Well, to be fair there is a big "EGOSOFT" banner on the left there. I mean, I thought you was a remote employee who managed this website, but I'm guessing I was wrong about that.

[Nyax]

Another thing that you might not know (I didn't until I researched it) The discovery scanner is not always active. You have to equip it as a weapon through the fire groups screen and then fire it (hold down the fire trigger until it charges) It will then find all the objects in it's range.

If you feel like taking a break from combat or trading, exploration can be a nice detour. The best possible situation though is to have a ship kitted out in such a way that you can do a bit of everything, or at the very least be able to defend your self.

I'm perfecting the art of escaping interdictions and running away if I fail (which isn't very often). Thus far my kill count is Zero. Although I have now sprung for a gimbled beam laser, and a top of the line power coupling on my hauler so perhaps the next time I get interdicted I'll try standing and fighting if it's just something like a sidewinder or Eagle attacking.

[Oldman]

Another thing that you might not know (I didn't until I researched it) The discovery scanner is not always active. You have to equip it as a weapon through the fire groups screen and then fire it (hold down the fire trigger until it charges) It will then find all the objects in it's range.

If you feel like taking a break from combat or trading, exploration can be a nice detour. The best possible situation though is to have a ship kitted out in such a way that you can do a bit of everything, or at the very least be able to defend your self.

I'm perfecting the art of escaping interdictions and running away if I fail (which isn't very often). Thus far my kill count is Zero. Although I have now sprung for a gimbled beam laser, and a top of the line power coupling on my hauler so perhaps the next time I get interdicted I'll try standing and fighting if it's just something like a sidewinder or Eagle attacking.

First, let me thank you for the information contained in a few posts up, where you explained some finer points of exploration and the use of the scanner.
I've been like a ruddy spider spinning a web ...that is... taking the core star/sun as a starting point and flying outwards in ever widening circles to find the systems planets, moons and space stations!
I did find a few dozen or so by watching the movement of the nearer objects against the background stars...but it was a time consuming job.
That's not to say I was bored...far from it, but now I know how to do it more efficiently, it's even more fun!...so thanks again for that Nyax!.

Yup!...I'm still fairly crap with a couple of fixed beam lasers, I just can't get one of the joystick functions in either axis (X/Y) to perform smoothly, and get the movement to be precise to my satisfaction.
The gimballed Multicannon and gimballed Lasers have now changed all that, I'm starting to win dogfights with this set up now, and I've even taken out some pirate/mercenary Cobra's and one Asp at the moment... HA!...I spit in the general direction of paltry sidewinders (unless they are Dangerous or Deadly! ).
Being serious though...I'm finding the game more fun as I learn different tactics (which includes strategic withdrawal's from some situations...erk!)

I'm now using my other computer with the Radeon 7950 gpu in it. MUCH quieter running, and even with only 4GB Ram the game looks and runs fine, so I think it's fair to say the game generally runs fine without many (if any) slow downs as regards comp equipment, at this level.
I've got the graphics set to high on this one, but with the Radeon 4870's in the other one I set the graphics to low. I'm thinking (could be wrong though) that the game isn't supporting Crossfire at the moment?

Anyway...I'm really enjoying the game, and for me personally it's that background Universe that's floating my boat so to speak, it goes a long way to keeping my interest.

Oldman

[Avis]

First, let me thank you for the information contained in a few posts up, where you explained some finer points of exploration and the use of the scanner.
I've been like a ruddy spider spinning a web ...that is... taking the core star/sun as a starting point and flying outwards in ever widening circles to find the systems planets, moons and space stations! ..

Well, I must admit I didn't realise about the scanner thing either, so instead of doing laps of the sun I would look for stars moving at a different speed (when near the star) then move in on them and find the planets, head back to the star do the same again etc,, alas discovering the scanner I think might have actually detracted from the system exploration a little :-\

[Oldman]

First, let me thank you for the information contained in a few posts up, where you explained some finer points of exploration and the use of the scanner.
I've been like a ruddy spider spinning a web ...that is... taking the core star/sun as a starting point and flying outwards in ever widening circles to find the systems planets, moons and space stations! ..

Well, I must admit I didn't realise about the scanner thing either, so instead of doing laps of the sun I would look for stars moving at a different speed (when near the star) then move in on them and find the planets, head back to the star do the same again etc,, alas discovering the scanner I think might have actually detracted from the system exploration a little :-\

Hi Avis

I've yet to try the 'proper' use of the scanner, but will in a few moments when I boot up the game. I'll finish off a mission that's outstanding, then I'll do some exploring far out from where I am at the moment, and see what methods produce a better experience for me personally. The systems I'm in at the moment are around the 'Raksha', 'Lumba', 'Imanata' and 'LTT 779' area in solo. There seems to be a good mixture of Trading, missions and exploring to do here at the moment, but I haven't found any shipyards that stock any of the larger ships (only Eagle's and Sidewinders) so at some point I'll be traveling further afield to look for some maybe.

Exiting some of the Orbital stations round here can be somewhat hazardous...B****y great Orcas and the larger trade ships moving slowly through the exit sometimes more or less block the exit when I'm trying to also get out, resulting in me getting one or two small fines for loitering, it's been a real squeeze to dodge around them at times.

Oldman

[clakclak]

I don't know much about this game, but I am fairly sure I am gonna get it.

Do all players play on one server?

[Nyax]

Useful tip- Just discovered the Mizar system in Alliance space close to Alioth. Fantastic range of upgrades. Seriously tempted by the top of the line frame shift drive. A 20 light year jump range could prove quite handy.


In other news just tried my hand at mining.

Wow. It's like Frontier carefully and methodically researched and designed the slowest and most frustrating form of mining possible, then made it worse and implemented that.


For those who havn't tried it yet, here's how it works.

To mine you need 2 things- A refinery and a mining laser. What's a refinery? we'll come to that in a minute.

So you find an asteroid and start blasting it with your mining laser. Bit's snap off. So far so normal. Now each bit you scoop up doesn't get you a tonne of a particular ore, instead it get's you say... 8% of a tonne, so you have to collect lot's of rocks in order to get a single tonne. That of course is part of the 'slow.' Now for the frustrating. Many rocks will be depleted before you've amassed enough for a complete unit of ore. So you move on to another rock. If that rocks composition is different you can't start collecting that ore as well, unless you throw away your 'in progress' unit and start over (You do get to keep any already completed units).

Higher priced refineries have more 'buckets' and so allow you to have multiple ore types on the go (up to three by three looks of it), however since every asteroid appears to consist of two ores, you still either end up with a lot of fruitless searching for 'compatible' asteroids, or throwing away half of what you collect.

Either way it's seems like it'll be an awful lot slower then missions/ trading/ Exploration/ combat.

[brucewarren]

If you can afford them 6 hopper refineries exist. I flew with one for a while. It was expensive though. It was class 2 and cost me 500K. I could have got a class 1 grade A which was also 6 hopper but twice the price.

You can also buy more powerful minig lasers that break the rocks off much faster, though I'm not sure whether it's worth it as it's the scooping that seems to take all the time. It would be interesting to find out if they do bigger chunks or have any other adantages

I'd agree that mining is slow

Unless you find a some metallic rings that no one has depleted. If you mine palladium or platinum you can make a lot of money reasonably quickly. The problem is finding it (and not telling anyone) I suspect this will tie in with the exploration mechanic.

[kurush]

EDITED TO ADD: Because of the MMO aspect it means that the mechanism (cut scene is the wrong term as they are in-game) has to run through the full animation else other players would see you 'teleporting' or more likely - vanishing into another instance bubble.

The same sequence - log out or, better, just killing the process seems to be also the best evasion maneuver If you are close to be destroyed, just kill the damn process and your enemy vanishes I am still enjoying the game, just annoyed at people praising its obvious shortcomings. It also seems to be fun to hack, with P2P architecture there is not much the can do to prevent it. It is going to be fun !

[Nyax]

Well I'm at that awkward stage. I have a little over 200,000 and I'm flying a hauler.

Do I continue to upgrade it? (already doubled the cargo and supped up the FTL drive and power systems)
Or do I buy another ship? (maybe a viper or save a bit more for a Cobra)

Any thoughts?


By the way is it me or are beam lasers basically just really bright searchlights? They do no damage whatsoever, but if you shine them at an enemy long enough they get annoyed with it and leave?

[kurush]

By the way is it me or are beam lasers basically just really bright searchlights? They do no damage whatsoever, but if you shine them at an enemy long enough they get annoyed with it and leave?

I got Cobra from kickstarter special and it is awesome, I think I'll just keep upgrading it until I have too much creds to get some big transporter. It really depends how many credits you can make of a single good trade run. I am getting somewhere in the range of 25-40k on cobra and I have it set up for basically everything, including mining, meaning cargo is just 32 and not 40 you can get by removing most internal stuff. I think the old elite Cobra had the same max number btw, cool, isn't it?

Beam lasers seem to be decent, but you obviously have to hit your target. I got one that you have to aim with the ship and another one that kinda tracks the target. Hitting something with the first one is hard, but possible. I think I killed some harmless dudes who tried to attack me I wonder if ammunition-based guns would be better choices though.

[pjknibbs]

By the way is it me or are beam lasers basically just really bright searchlights? They do no damage whatsoever, but if you shine them at an enemy long enough they get annoyed with it and leave?

What enemy are you shooting at? I found I was able to take on Eagles and Sidewinders in my Hauler using a single gimballed burst laser, but anything higher was largely impossible, and I don't think a beam laser is that much more powerful than a burst that you'll be taking on Anacondas in it.

Mark me up as someone else who never knew how to properly use a discovery scanner--I could see it could be added to a weapon group, but it never seemed to do much when I fired it (probably not holding it down long enough). That extra exploration cash would have come in very handy!

I think it says something that, despite the frustrations I had actually playing the game, I kind of want to play it again when it's released. Given the way the release falls and my plans for Xmas I don't think there'll be much opportunity to try until a couple of weeks after release, though!

[Grim Lock]

The pve group i joined also has a teamspeak server running, and being on there has made the game much more enjoyable, the tips and tricks and imediaye response to questions makes the learnung curve a lot less steep.

Anyone can join as long as you dont go pirating other real players, so its ideal for people who dont mind the online bit but dont wanna get murdered by some dude with way to much time on his hands, check it out: www.elitepve.com

[RegisterMe]

Given the way the release falls and my plans for Xmas I don't think there'll be much opportunity to try until a couple of weeks after release, though!

Given my experience of MMO launches, that may be a very, very good thing.

No lifer RM, who is going to pull a rock in front of his cave over Christmas, is of course, hoping for the opposite.

And I am not posting in this thread, honest.

[Nyax]

Yay! got enough for a cobra Mk 3. Let the good times roll!

[birdtable]

First of all I have Rebirth and Elite... Enjoying both games so no axe to grind,,but as we get closer to release is the audio quality of Elite getting worse .... Cobra sounds muffled , computer voice faint and garbled.... Is it Elite or has my system/software become corrupted .... ?
Did a fresh install but made no difference ...... any suggestion from those who hear no difference.....

[Rug]

I don't have a cobra, so can't comment on that point, but the ship's computer voice has definitely become much quieter in the gamma releases. Much commented on over on the frontier forums. Hopefully this will be reset to earlier levels.

Rug